Joys of Internships
by CutePiglet
Summary: [Based on real-life events] As a teacher-in-training, Yami Tanaka had no idea his first year of internship would become /this/ stressful. He continued to glare at the student who was smiling brightly at him after he had called him over once again. "You're going to be the death of me, Yugi Mutou." YxYY


**Author's note: **I know what y'all are thinking.

"Joanne, why the hell are you writing a new story and not updating your other stories?"  
>The answer is simple, my dear fellow Puzzly fluffy readers: Because I can.<p>

My notes aren't making any sense and I'm not entirely sure what I'm doing with this fic, oh god. I'm not even sure if I should continue because adhsufjdsaklfasd'l;fa

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><p>This was not Yami Tanaka's first time in this school because he already had to meet up with his mentor, Mai Kujaku, who was going to guide him and teach him everything he needed to know about becoming a teacher. She had given him a few tips one week ago, which were still quite fresh:<p>

"You have to find a balance. You're young, so the students here are going to have the tendency to treat you like one of their friends, but you have to keep in mind that _you're _their teacher now and not their best friend. As soon as they start seeing you as one of them, they won't respect you anymore and you can kiss your career goodbye."

Mai had been a teacher for nearly ten years and probably knew what she was talking about since she had gone to the exact same school as him. Her expectations were clear but she had promised to go easy on him; he was only a first-year after all and still had a good few years to go.

The bag on his shoulder was filled with every book he needed, his lunch, his student ID, his phone and laptop so it was _pretty damn heavy. _He felt like an idiot for carrying all that stuff around, but he didn't have a choice. Getting a teacher-locker was only for third-years, and maybe second-years if they were lucky. This would have to do.

Adolescents were running around, laughing and sitting on the tables as Yami walked into the main hall. Some of them looked up at him, giving him a weird look. He couldn't exactly blame them because he _did _look mature but then there was his height and the heavy bag he was carrying.

"M-morning, sir," one of the girls said with a hint of nervousness in her voice, probably not entirely sure if he was one of them or not.

"Good morning," Yami replied briefly with a charming smile before he turned around the corner so he could climb the stairs. Several other teachers walked past him, looked him up and down, smiled and continued. It was getting more awkward with each passing minute, but he remained on his feet and refused to appear nervous or unprepared.

He kept walking, trying to ignore the curious stares he constantly received from passing students, including the whispering and pointing fingers.

As soon as he reached the teacher's lounge, he dropped his bag and dragged it towards the table, letting himself crash in one of the chairs. It was way too early to function properly, even though it was somewhere around eight in the morning, but since he had been up for _fucking three hours _already, he was about to fall asleep on the spot.

Ever since he had been looking for a placement school, practically everyone had turned him down, or told him they were packed with other students. This one, Domino High, was the only school left on the list and had accepted him right away. The only problem was the fact that it was a good two hours away from his apartment and he would have to get up at five once a week for the rest of the year.

Oh, well. As long as he would pass this course, then everything would be fine. Just peachy.

Someone barged in and walked over to the coffee machine, mumbling a "Good morning" under their breath before sighing to himself. The man was obviously tall, had short brown hair and wearing a neat suit.

Yami blinked and looked down at his simple clothing. Maybe he should have dressed for the occasion; this was his first day after all and he knew that leaving a good first impression was so very important, especially for occasions like these.

"I've never seen you around," the teacher spoke curtly, turning back to him, this time with a cup of steaming coffee in it. "You new?"

"E-er, intern," Yami answered awkwardly, standing up and bowing politely. "Yami Tanaka, first year student at the University of Tokyo."

"Todai?" The man repeated incredulously and Yami nodded. "Do you live around here?"

"No, I live in Tokyo."

"Wow. You've got balls, kid. I mean, the distance between Domino and Tokyo is about one-hundred kilometers."

"What can I say? I'm very dedicated," Yami said smoothly, his lips curling into a smug grin. "I've been up since five and ready to face the day."

Right at that moment, Mai opened the door and strode into the room. Her long, elegant blonde hair was pulled into a high ponytail that still reached her lower back and she was wearing a simple purple dress, which complimented her eyes. She didn't look thirty-two at all, and Yami couldn't help but think she probably had to deal with flirtatious remarks of hormonal teenagers all day long.

"Oh, Yami, you're already here. Good, 'cause I wanted to talk to you about how you are going to introduce yourself to my students," she told him. Her eyes drifted over to her colleagues. "And I see you've already met Kaiba."

The man took a sip of his coffee and nodded and walked out of the room again, telling them he had some more work to do.

"He's not a morning person," Mai joked, gently pushing Yami back on the chair and sitting down next to him. "All right, so I have seven different classes today. All of my students are between fourteen and seventeen and they're all a bunch of cuties, but they can be a pain in the ass as well. Keep in mind that they're going to test your patience because you're a newbie and that they're going to try to annoy you. All you have to do is rise above and show them who's boss. Got it?"

Yami's eyes had widened quite a bit, but he nodded anyway.

"Great. Now, about your introduction… It doesn't have to be in English, maybe a couple of words here and there, but if you overdo it, they won't understand a thing. However, for our third-years it's perfectly normal to talk English since I tend to do the entire hour in English, anyway. Tell them a little about yourself; where you're from, your age, why you're here and that they're free to ask any questions. They might take advantage of the last one, but I guarantee you, they will open up to you if you open up to them first. Of course you don't have to answer the really personal questions, don't overdo it, but it's good to share."

"… Okay," he said quietly, trying to store every bit of information somewhere in his brain.

"If you don't know the answer to a question, or need help with something else, simply call on me and I will help out. It's better to be honest than to give them the wrong information. You're not gonna have to teach right away, but I do expect you to be able to take over some of my classes at the end of the year. That _is _your goal, right?"

"Right."

"For today I've prepared some new grammar rules, some fun exercises and new assignments they're going to have to prepare for next week. All you have to do is observe, walk around and help the students who raise their hands. It's all about baby-steps. Think you can handle that?"

Yami gave another confirming nod and smiled. "Absolutely."

"Then we're good to go."

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><p>Students were pointing at him, whispering things behind their cupped hands and frantically looking around for their own teacher. Yami felt his nose reddening as more adolescents asked their friends why "that dude" was standing in front of the board, since he was obviously not one of them.<p>

He had no idea if he was supposed to introduce himself because Mai had left to get her books and had left him all on his own. She shouldn't have left him in this spot, seeing that he was practically freaking out her students. Some of them looked actually _scared_, others were silently telling him to leave and the rest was beyond curious to find out who he was.

The murmurs got louder and louder and Yami folded his arms over his chest, raising an accusing eyebrow. Surprisingly, the students cowered and quickly went back to whispering to each other. He blinked, he didn't think it would actually work.

Somebody peeked inside the classroom and Yami turned to the smaller student standing there, holding his hand on the door hesitantly as if he wasn't sure whether he had to enter or not. Their eyes met for a quick, awkward moment and Yami pressed his lips together, trying not to stare because the guy was pretty good-looking.

"Is this um… Miss Kujaku's class?"

"Y-yeah, she's just getting her books. Come on in," Yami beckoned him to come in and the smaller one tentatively took a few more steps, looking at the other students, who shrugged.

Mai walked back in with her books, closing the door behind her with a loud _thump. _It went quiet right away and she dropped the books on her desk, placing her feminine hands on either side of the pile and looking at her pupils with a wide smile.

"Good morning, everyone," she said in English, looking over at Yami, giving him a quick smile. "As you can see, we've got a very special guest here today. He's going to introduce himself to you and I want you all to listen very carefully."

This was a third-year class so he was allowed to do his introduction in English, which made him slightly nervous. He took a deep breath, put on an inviting smile and started speaking.

"My name is Yami Tanaka, I'm a first-year student at the University of Tokyo. I'm studying to become an English teacher like Miss Kujaku over here and will be here every Wednesdsay for the rest of the year. I will try to help you as much as I can and you can always ask me questions if you need any help."

Most of the students' jaws dropped. Someone mumbled, "Jeez, _posh _accent."

The boy who had been the last one to enter the class raised his hand. "How old are you?"

Oops, he had forgotten to mention that. "I'm eighteen."

"You're so young!" a girl exclaimed, her face completely flushed.

"Well, I just got out of high school," Yami chuckled lamely, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Does this mean you're going to be teaching us?" another girl asked.

"At some point, yeah."

A lot of girls started giggling and Yami mentally rolled his eyes, telling himself it was all because of the hormones. Most guys just stared at him as if he was some weird alien who had somehow managed to sneak into the classroom, other than the boy who was smiling at him reassuringly. The smile lit up his entire face, bringing out his rather handsome features and causing a sparkle to appear in his big, purple eyes.

'Snap out of it,' he thought. 'He's fucking _underage._'

"If there are no further questions, we're going to get started. Today, we'll focus on speaking and fluency, but do keep in mind that you need to be comprehensible. Open your books to page twenty-seven and twenty-eight. Yes, you too, Jounouchi."

Yami walked to the last row so he could sit at one of the empty tables with his notebook and books. While Mai started explaining some new grammar rules, he started doing some paperwork, but also tried to pay attention to the explanation. Every single student was taking notes, nodding to what their teacher was telling them and asking the occasional question.

"Now, in your textbook you will find chunks of a conversation between a customer and a cashier. I want you to form groups of two, and with the help of those chunks, hold a conversation: one of you being the customer and the other the cashier. See it as some sort of "speed-dating" game because every two minutes, I want the person on the right to move over to another table. Doesn't that sound fun?"

Mai was obviously being sarcastic and the students groaned in response but got up nonetheless. They started moving the tables around so they could sit across from each other and several guys tried to pair up with some girls, who playfully told them to go away.

Yami got up, helping here and there and smiling when the students shyly thanked him.

"Seems like we're short on one person. If you're lucky, you're gonna get Yami as your partner. I'll get the timer ready." She pointed at a tall, blond student who was sitting with an empty table in front of him. Yami took a seat behind the table with a small smile, and got one in return.

"Looks like you're stuck with me," Yami joked lightly, his smile widening when the guy in front of him leaned back with a smug grin.

"I guess so. The name's Jounouchi, by the way. Can't believe you're only one year older than me, dude. That's weird," he said.

"Okay, everyone, we're gonna start. Ready? Go!"

Other than the few pronunciation and grammar mistakes, Jounouchi was doing a pretty good job so far. At a certain point, they weren't even reading the sentences from the book and were casually talking about something else. Jounouchi was rather amusing to talk to, especially because he kept messing up, but pretended it was all part of his act.

"And um… I want this big, uh, tattoo on my," he started, holding out his arm and pointing at it. "arm…? What about you?"

Yami tried his best to keep himself from snickering at the silliness. "One of my best friends has got one, but I'm personally not interested."

Mai clapped in her hands. "All right. Time to switch!"

Yami left with a quick wink and found himself in front of that good-looking guy again. "… Hi."

"Hello," the boy said with a dashing smile. "I'm sorry, I forgot your name. You were talking so fast that I could barely keep up. My English isn't that good."

"It's Yami." He didn't everyone to call him by his last name because that would be too informal and would probably make him feel old. The age gap between him and the other students wasn't that big to begin with, even though he was now officially their teacher.

"I'm Yugi."

"You wanna be the customer, or the cashier?" Yami quickly asked, flipping to the right page of the book he had brought with him. He felt his stomach doing a couple of familiar flips, which meant trouble. Now was really _not _the time to feel attracted to someone.

"Uh, I'll be the cashier. Oh, shit, that means I have to start."

"Come on, you can do it," Yami encouraged him when Yugi started to look flustered. Turned out he wasn't lying when he said he wasn't that good at English.

"… H-hello, may, no wait, _can_ I help you?"

Yami's eyes softened. "Yes, I'd like to return these pants."

Yugi bit his lip and looked at his book, pressing his finger against the paper, as if he was trying to find out what to say next. His cool attitude was completely gone and had been replaced by a very awkward, nervous one. "Why, m-may I _askuh_?"

"_Ask,_" Yami corrected gently, putting emphasis on the K.

A hint of red appeared on Yugi's cheekbones and he laughed nervously. "Okay. As…k?"

"You see, they're too big for me and I was wondering if you have these in a smaller size?" Yami continued, trying to talk slowly because he could clearly see Yugi struggling. The poor guy's finger was trembling slightly and the red on his face started increasing. But then, a hint of mischief appeared in his eyes and he blinked.

"… No."

Yami snorted and saw Yugi smirking, glad he had found an easy way out. "No?"

"No, I am sorry."

"Yugi," Yami switched back to Japanese, leaning forward and giving him a look. "It says here that you're supposed to let me return them and give me another pair so I can leave and move on with my boring life."

Now it was Yugi's turn to snort. "Doesn't matter. You're not getting a new pair of pants 'cause I'm not giving them to you. Go to another shop so you can impress someone else with your English skills and handsome face."

Raising an eyebrow, Yami silently wondered if Yugi was truly _flirting _with him. "Excuse me?"

"Time's up!"

Oh boy. Yami's jaw dropped and he looked back at Mai who started tapping students on their shoulders to let them know they had to move. He looked back at Yugi who was smiling innocently, clearly proud of himself, but he was not going to give up that easily.

"Mai, we weren't quite done here. Do you mind if…?"

The teacher looked over at him and blinked. "Oh, no please continue. It's important that everyone finishes this exercise. Mazaki will just have to move to the table next to you."

Turning back at Yugi with a satisfied grin, he folded is arms over his chest. Yugi's smile had disappeared and he was now pursing his lips, obviously not amused. "Two can play at this game."

"Fine."

Internship was going to be _fun._

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><p><strong>Author's note: <strong>Oh, the joys of teaching English.

Before you ask, "Todai" is some sort of nickname for the Uni of Tokyo. I'm totally cool for using that, yo. *shot dead*

Okay, okay, let me explain. I'm a second-year college student, teaching English at my current placement school. Some of you have been asking me if I was majoring in English, and well, hope this answers your question. xD

Anywway, I got sort of inspired to write this fic when I was on my way to my classroom and saw this _really_ _hot _guy walking past me. I instantly thought,  
>"NO. NO, BAD. HE'S UNDERAGE."<p>

And I've _always_ wanted to write a studentxteacher Puzzle fic, but then I thought that they were totally overrated and cliché, so WHY NOT WRITE A COLLEGE STUDENTXHIGH SCHOOL STUDENT FIC INSTEAD?~

_Most _of these things have actually happened, including Yugi (of course it wasn't Yugi but you know) hesitating before entering the classroom and me having to reassure the poor guy I wasn't some sort of monster, the way the students acted around Yami, the "speed-dating" exercise and some of the questions/comments Yami received. Just casually turning my own experiences into some mushy romantic, lovey-dovey story. Should be fun.

By the way, it's really weird when you're nineteen and there are these fifteen-year-olds calling you "Miss." It makes me feel SO old. xD

This is the longest author's note ever, MEH. Gonna shut up now and kindly ask you to review~!

See you next chapter, lovelies. x3


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